A third party is being appointed to oversee the process to ensure it is comprehensive.

Talking about the company’s plans, Justin Davies, regional managing director for First in the South West and Wales, said: “We are aware that the issue of fares in Bristol has often been a contentious one with a perception that the cost of travel here is significantly higher than elsewhere. This is frustrating for everyone and is something we have wished to tackle for some time.

"We want to heighten awareness about the industry and allow people to better understand the economics of running buses and the cost pressures we face. In return we want to hear from the public and their representatives, in particular what they think we could do differently to both attract more people on to buses and deliver the best possible value for money for our

customers.

"This is why we are launching this review and consultation and we hope that as many people as possible will let us have their views.”

“We are appointing a third party to work with us on this, and hope to complete the process by the end of the summer, using the findings of the consultation in our decision making going

forward.”

Mayor of Bristol George Ferguson said: "I greatly welcome the proposal by First to open consultation on fare levels and structure. This is a sensible response to the understandable concern by the travelling public, myself and other local representatives.

"Consultation must be genuinely open and transparent and will hopefully lead to some very significant improvements in value and passenger numbers. I ask that the principal campaigners led by Daniel Farr are included in the process and that it is considered as

the first step in achieving a better contract in which the four local authorities have much more say in bus fares and other aspects of service."

31 comments

First have been cynical in the past. Spring fare rise for single/return tickets - making day tickets appear cheaper. Then autumn rise for day tickets so it's cheaper for returns. Just more money going into Worst's piggybank. My bet is that more people are shunning their buses. Prove us wrong and release the data

It does work well if you get a dayrider and spend all day getting buses, and £4 is good value for that. But most people don't, they get a dayrider as a return bafflingly often costs more. Even if First charge more in other cities, their service can be pitifully bad at times. They make huge amounts of money so I doubt they actually care very much.

@NotTheCouncil - "Tim, Gary and Jon can now offer a very important service to First. For years they ran consultations, where they consulted, listened, ignored and then did what they wanted regardless of public opinion. For (a hefty sum) Tim, Gary and Jon can once again provide that service."
I thought that the Lib/Dem Council in general, and Tim/Gary/Jon in particular had been working for First Bus for years.
They've certainly provided a dedicated service to First Bus while IGNORING the wishes of the people of Bristol!

In an ideal world Bristol would move to a multi-operator pre-paid Oyster system like London's, which operates on a flat fare basis: same price whether you go one stop or 25 and with a maximum charge per day which effectively means that the more journeys you make, the cheaper each one averages out to. Drivers don't deal with cash or issue tickets and the whole thing operates seamlessly.
First and other local operators have made a start on that with the Avon Rider, which is very good value at £7.50 a day and covers a vast area. However, it's not a solution for everybody.
As for the comment about why focus on day tickets - another poster complained about a £2.95 single. Assuming they're returning home later, then a £4.00 day ticket would be cheaper than two singles - and probably cheaper than a return, which is also less flexible. You can and should use it just like an Oyster: why toil up Park St when you can hop on a bus and go a couple of stops for (essentially) nothing?
I live just 7 miles outside Bath and it's actually cheaper for me to get a £7.00 First Day South West ticket than a return to Bath. I've been known to get anything up to a dozen different buses in one day using one of those tickets, travelling as far as Weston, Portishead. Wells or Warminster. Again, essentially for nothing!
And no - I don't work for First!

Part of the problem is that there doesn't seen to be any way to find out what the cost of a single/ return for a particular journey should actually be.
Why don't First publish this info on their web site?

Hi Elsewhereman,
But why has this debate turned to day rider's? A day rider is for people who want to enjoy Bristol whereas the real campaign here is about the people who want return fares and single fares. First are ruthless at ensuring that nothing in place helps local people. Look at the fuel crises a few years ago when First put up their prices overnight but when the fuel dropped just weeks later First never lowered their fares, blaming a recent delivery on the higher fuel costs. If only we could prove what a load of rubbish that was...
In Cardiff a single fare was £1.25 when I caught a bus across the city last year and the same journey distance in Bristol is double the price and all too often the drivers over charge becuase they do not know the routes. It's easy to be over charged by 50p or more here.
First can always try and play on the whole Dayrider spin but it's return and single fares which at a guess 90% of people would choose. They've fixed the fares to be the same price as a day rider to use this kind of spin. This is why Wessex Red should be encouraged to take over the whole city.

I think it's pretty obvious that the public consultation is just First stalling and trying to win public favor, it sound like that just want to try and justify the high prices by educating the public about their costs without mentioning profits and how much they have to pay their shareholders!
Even if it's found the fares are too high does the council have the ability to force them?
The councils and government need to be more proactively involved in these issues; if they want us to stop using our cars and start using alternative forms of transport, those forms of transport need to be 'fit for purpose' i.e. cheap and reliable. At the moment we have a rail system which is pretty unreliable with fares that are the highest in Europe and bus services (in Bristol) heading in the same direction. Pretty soon it will be cheaper to use your car to get to work then use public transport.
On the ITV West new segment the First spokesman blamed congestion for the high prices, I believe that London has cheaper buses then Bristol so that must mean it doesn't have any congestion. If the fares were lower, more people would use public transport and congestion would be reduced, but I'm sure First wouldn't see it that way.
The only way that Bristol will ever get fairly priced public transport is by breaking Firsts monopoly, and bringing in competition!
So please sign the petition and attend the demonstration on Saturday if you can, its time for a change in Bristol!

@ Richard34
No argument with any of that - although as you admit, Wessex Red don't serve all parts of the city. My point was that while people in Bristol may like to moan about the cost of First's fares, they are actually lower than comparable ones the same company offers in nearby areas. In smaller cities and towns too: how is it right that bus fares in Bath are 10% higher than Bristol, when Bristol's population is more than four times greater?
However, that's not to say it can't be done cheaper. In Exeter, a city only about 20% larger than Bath, Stagecoach do a Dayrider for £3.50 and in other smaller places - Swindon, Gloucester, Cheltenham etc, their Dayriders are cheaper still. You can even get a combined Cheltenham/Gloucester one for £5.00.
First's business model appears to be that the smaller the town or city, the more they charge!